Speaking in Tongues

Speaking in Tongues No one can go any further than he himself has been taught, and a teacher can teach no more than he knows. If you want to help someone else, first you yourself must be helped; otherwise, the blind lead the blind and they both stumble around. One of the darkest spots of understanding in the Bible concerns the Holy Spirit, both the Giver and the gift of holy spirit. Let us no longer be blind. Let us study God’s Word to understand His will. First of all let us clarify that God is Holy Spirit. When a person is born again, God gives to His new son a gift. And since God is Holy Spirit, He can only give what He is—holy spirit. To help distinguish between God the Giver and His gift, the Giver, Holy Spirit, is always capitalized while His gift, holy spirit, is not. A person receives the holy spirit when he confesses Jesus as Lord and believes that God raised Jesus from the dead, as Romans 10:9,10 directs. The gift of holy spirit has nine parts or manifestations. I Corinthians 12 lists these manifestations: (1) word of wisdom, (2) word of knowledge, (3) faith, (4) gifts of healing, (5) miracles, (6) prophecy, (7) discerning of spirits, (8) tongues and (9) interpretation of tongues. In this study we want to specifically look at the manifestation of speaking in tongues— when one speaks in tongues and why one speaks in tongues. A believer operating the manifestation of the spirit called tongues will be edified spiritually, spiritually built-up. He can operate this manifestation in two situations: in public and in private. (1) The bulk of a believer’s speaking in tongues is in his own private life. As such, speaking in tongues in private will be prayer or praise to the Father and, therefore, is never interpreted. This prayer and praise is spoken of as “praying in the spirit.” (2) A believer can speak in tongues publicly in a believers’ meeting. When a person publicly speaks in tongues, he must always interpret. A public message is never a prayer however; it is